Remember: Not safe for work, not safe for minors, not safe for people of a nervous disposition, not safe for angler fish, not safe for dust, not safe for carpet cleaning products of unusually bright colours.

It's interesting that the only real hope for survival/victory in the Crossed world is the "crossed nature." Given access to no one else who's "other" they'll turn on themselves. Presumably the basic survival strategy is to hide and wait for them to destroy each other. Then once the last one has bashed his own infected brains out for the sheer hell of it, humanity can come back out again.

That's what I was thinking too. Kind of like with the 28 Days Later Rage virus; just hide, wait for the infected to die of starvation and amped up systems, and make sure to wipe down all surfaces with bleach so it doesn't happen again.

Longtime Crossed reader, have the first 3 trades, like the English spin on the plusfaces outside the US.

The feeling I get off things is that no matter what, there is always another shoe waiting to drop. They have the safety of the island, but I get the feeling that things are in a holding pattern, building up to something or waiting for the enevitable Crossed zerg rush.

I've only been an intermittent reader of <em>Crossed</em> - I followed the initial series but dropped it from "Family Values" for the tiresome and fatuous ragging on Christianity that I suffer through enough everywhere else on the internet. However, I've long been a fan of Si's writing - adored his work on <em>Warhammer 40,000</em> (get the Black Library to do Daemonifuge IV, you've got the cachet now!), regularly read <em>2000AD</em>, and the magical-realist slant in his crime novels works very well, too - and his connection as brought me back into the fold again. I have to say that I'm enjoying it immensely; Cava is very effective as a setting, and the flashbacks to London aren't intrusive (I'm genuinely intrigued as to how Shakey gets out of the city). Seeing the cross blistering across the face of the soldier at the end of Chapter 9 was delightfully grotesque, too!

I'm also impressed by the sheer volume of material - multiple pages, every week, in full colour, for free? We're being spoilt rotten.

johnjones, RenThing: at first, I thought the same as well, but something in me's niggling away - it can't be that (relatively) easy! Something vile must be churning over the horizon that will make the Crossed a much more lasting threat, and the sortie (sortiesortiesortie) will prick that horrible pustule...

Thinking about my last post, maybe "easy" isn't the right word for it - it is still a struggle for survival on Cava, after all. Maybe "passive" is better? The protagonists aren't really involved in a story if the events happen elsewhere.

Then again, that would be a bleakly ironic sort of ending - the humans tear themselves apart, and the last bedraggled survivor stumbles onto the mainland to discover that the Crossed have finally expired and if they could only have stopped arguing for a few more days they would have made it...

Just an oversight by the colourist, looks like -- nothing to read into it. Your medal's in the post.

I didn't notice on the first read through. Though if I had, I probably would've fanwanked it that she was just a good old-fashioned violent psychopath and the Crossed "accepted" her because she was acting just like they were. When in Rome, like that. I guess one question I have is: Are the Crossed specifically compelled to attack those without the Crossed illness first, or do they simply first go after anyone who acts like "prey", ie normal people?

Not specifically about chapter 10 but a random sort of query. Infection seems to be pretty much instantaneous but back in Garth's original run the guy injured with a semen covered bullet took some time to turn, ditto the river policeman on the boat. So, are these just purely plot points to create suspense or is there some possibility that certain people may take longer to turn or (shock horror) there may even be an immunity? Goes against the no hope, no cure ethos of the series but thought I'd throw it into the mix anyway. And really enjoying the series btw.